ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

Architecture photography, the art of photographing buildings, construction sites, airports/planes, malls, towns and sites, historical sites, commissioned work and interior design. And focuses on architecture photography for cultural significance, art and beauty, historical documentation, and of course, the marketing, sale or rental of commercial buildings, homes and malls.

Photographers from Creative Management Services use telephoto lenses to compress a scene or object and reveal interesting patterns and textures and abstractions. Wide-angle lenses distort with a forced perspective for example a jutting fore-edge of a building. The top floor of a tall, modern building seems to sail over your head like a low-flying aircraft. Stand at the base of skyscrapers, shoot up and the tops almost disappear as they “grow” skyward.

Shooting at night offers structural silhouettes, daytime offers brilliance and color and long exposures catch displays of lights and neon. But architecture photography likes all kinds of weather. And the mood of the photograph changes as quickly as the forecast. Reflections not only in water, but on a shiny surface or wet street add richness and character.

Some of the most talented characters in photography are hiding in the shadows. To understand how photographers worked before color, visit an exhibit in black and white or look at old film version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon in the film noir genre. The shadows are alive and an integral to the film as they play a significant role in character and composition and balance. A gifted photographer knows how to translate those wonderful shadow features into color. Another movie, The Third Man with Orson Wells takes the use of shadows as characters to the nth degree!